Napoleon Case

When it comes to wars, many people like to find out what really goes on in details. We fail to realize what the soldiers have to go through especially the young ones. Throughout history a person can really understand the perspective of a young soldier by reading written sources particularly through a primary source in which the history was preserved. Usually this comes in a form of a diary. An example will be the diary of a Napoleonic foot soldier which was written by Jakob Walter. Walter lets his audience know of his experience as a soldier during Napoleon’s campaigns in 1806, 1809 and 1812-1813. He gives a straight forward account of his experience and what he was thinking at different points in time. Just by examining the way he describes these events, one could say that he thinks the campaigns were thoughtless and useless and that he wasn’t passionate about it. Also he thinks it was dangerous and wanted to be home safely with his family and friends.

During the first two campaigns, Walters’s purpose for writing this diary might have been a way to just document his day to day activities. Also it might have been a way to communicate and keep up with friends and family. He was not passionate about the campaigns at all! The reason could be because he was German instead of French. Usually people show some type of patriotism when they go to war for their country. They give in their all when they fight for their country. In this case we have a nineteen year old who is drafted and forced to leave his family and country to go and fight for a cause he has no idea about. When someone is forced to do something, they usually do not do it wholeheartedly. Throughout the diary we can tell that Walter is just going through the motion and uses his accounts to communicate with friends and family instead of a big audience. Also this might be a way of writing to himself to remind himself of some of the events that occurred during the campaigns. He doesn’t really give detailed stories in the first two campaigns.

Eventually when he was called to duty for the campaign of 1812, his accounts were more vivid and detailed. He documents how dangerous and